Clone Commander Cody - SW [Y/AOTC] - The Clone Wars (CW07)

Clone Commander Cody serves under Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi during the Clone Wars. (European packaging)

Obi-Wan is shocked to discover that Darth Maul is alive. The Jedi fought and defeated Maul some years ago and was sure that the evil Sith apprentice was dead. But somehow Maul has survived, and now Obi-Wan must fight this deadly enemy once more. (North American packaging)

One of the most impressive figures in the 2012 phase of The Clone Wars line was Clone Commander Cody (CW7). One of the few figures from The Clone Wars line to come with a full 14 points of articulation, Clone Commander Cody was proof that Hasbro could deliver amazing clone leaders while including play value for the much younger collectors. Clone Commander Cody was a literal work of art. Hasbro added all of the right elements into the figure. Coming with The Vintage Collection premium quality articulation, Cody also came with brilliant color, battle-damage and a ranking badge decal that looked simply amazing. An all-new head sculpt was tooled as well and was a step above what Hasbro had given to us previously. Besides possessing a slight lack of complete movement in the lower body, Clone Commander Cody set a new standard for Hasbro. Sadly it was a standard they couldn’t keep up. Future clone commanders in the line would feel a setback, as articulation was greatly reduced on them unfortunately. Thankfully, Hasbro must have experienced a change of heart and the 2013 The Clone Wars figures would receive updates and upgrades and super-articulated figures like Clone Commander Cody would see a rerelease.

For all intents and purposes, Clone Commander Cody can be considered a repack, but we’re not going to qualify that with the word “straight.” Hasbro has changed some of the details on the figure and we don’t know if this was intentional or unintentional. We’re going with unintentional. But some of the colors have been changed slightly and some of the applications have been tightened up for the better as well. Most notable for us is the change in Clone Commander Cody’s facial scarring. This time around it has been applied more thickly, in a different color, and almost in a different shape. It appears to be painted on a bit more sloppily, but it’s noticeably different. You’ll also notice that Hasbro cleaned up front of his hairline and his widow’s peak is nearly gone now. Hasbro has also tightened up the paint operations on his ranking badge. There was a wider outside perimeter of silver that encased the badge. That looks more streamlined (and ultimately better). Also, we have noticed very slight color variations in the orange color flashes and the gray abdomen section of his armor (the torso area only). The orange paint is shinier and the gray section is a shade darker.

Other than that, Clone Commander Cody is exactly the same. He comes with 14 points of articulation. A ball-socket head is jointed by ball-jointed shoulders, elbows, knees and ankles. And then the rest of him is swivel articulation including his wrists, waist and hips. He is modestly accessorized. He comes with a DC-15 blaster rifle, a removable jet, a removable helmet and for the kids, a removable large jetpack and harness. Because Clone Commander Cody has a unique antenna on his left shoulder, it interferes with the placement of the extra large jetpack, which we find particularly annoying. We struggled to place the large jetpack on him without it being pushed to the right because of his antenna. We much rather pose Cody without it. His legs are still too close together, so posing his with legs spread or outstretched is quite a challenge. You’re probably tired of hearing this from us, but we will take ball-jointed hips of ankles any day. But without complaining, we still feel that Clone Commander Cody is a fine action figure specimen. It was nice to see him indirectly updated and rereleased for 2013. We found it particularly interesting that he has the same sequence number, item number and assortment number as his 2012 counterpart. Interesting.